On his Gentleman Villain podcast, William Regal recently discussed a variety of topics. During it, he described how health problems in 2003-2004 cost him $300,000 in health insurance. The AEW manager stated that he paid the bills until he signed with WWE.
Regal said, “There’s a lost thing in our job about — and I think I’ve talked about it before and if not, it’s a reminder. As a talent, your business is your business when it comes to whatever your business is with the company you work for. Whatever deal you make, you should be happy with or not, but if you make it, it’s your deal. Don’t go around talking about money with people. We did talk about this on a previous podcast. Don’t talk about money. You’ve made your deal. If somebody makes a better deal, tough. You should have made your own deal because it just causes animosity and problems. You’ve got to accept the deal you accept. Different way of getting paid in those days. You had a guarantee and then you got paid off of houses. I know and this is thanks to Mr. Ross, Jim Ross because he was the person who put the pay out in those days. My time with Lance [Storm] was the most money I made in the WWE.
For whatever amount of time we were together, that year was the most money I ever made in the WWE by far, and then it all went [left] the year after when I had — just my 20 percent, just my 20 percent that I had to pay of my health insurance totaled up — for the heart problems I had totaled up to $300,000. So that’s when people wonder why — well they don’t wonder why because I don’t talk money but… I don’t care. Three hundred grand for a normal wrestler like me, I’m not from the time I was earning huge. I’ve earned good money. I’ve always earned good money for a long time but when you’ve got a family and I don’t live large, three hundred grand, and then my health insurance went up so much after that… once I had this heart problem, my health insurance just over tripled so from 2004-on was my health insurance that I had to fine before I walked out the door every month. That was just to get through the door so I could go to wrestle to go to bring a wage into the house. Before they even made it out, my health insurance was $700 more than the mortgage on my house and I paid my house off in 15 years… and so all the way until I become an employee for the WWE, I had this massive note of health insurance just to be able to keep working.”
You can listen to the complete interview below:
(H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcription)
